Y combinator application questions
=Summer '06= Y Combinator Funding Application Summer 2007 Application deadline: 12 midnight (PST) April 2, 2007. # What is your company going to make? # For each founder, please list: YC username; name; age; year, school, degree, and subject for each degree; email address; personal url (if any); and present employer and title (if any). Put unfinished degrees in parens. List the main contact first. Separate founders with blank lines. Put an asterisk before the name of anyone not able to move to Boston for the summer. # Please tell us in one or two sentences something about each founder that shows a high level of ability. # What's new about what you're doing? # What are people forced to do now because what you plan to make doesn't exist yet? # How will you make money? # Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most? # For founders who are hackers: what cool things have you built? (Include urls if possible.) # How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? # What tools will you use to build your product? # If you've already started working on it, how long have you been working and how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written? # If you have an online demo, what's the url? # How long will it take before you have a prototype? A beta? A version you can charge for? # Which companies would be most likely to buy you? # If one wanted to buy you three months in (August 2007), what's the lowest offer you'd take? # Why would your project be hard for someone else to duplicate? # Do you have any ideas you consider patentable? # What might go wrong? (This is a test of imagination, not confidence.) # If you're already incorporated, when were you? Who are the shareholders and what percent does each own? If you've had funding, how much, at what valuation(s)? # If you're not incorporated yet, please list the percent of the company you plan to give each founder, and anyone else you plan to give stock to. (This question is as much for you as us.) # If you'll have any major expenses beyond the living costs of your founders, bandwidth, and servers, what will they be? # If by August your startup seems to have a significant (say 20%) chance of making you rich, which of the founders would commit to working on it full-time for the next several years? # Do any founders have other commitments between June and August 2007 inclusive? # Do any founders have commitments in the future (e.g. have been accepted to grad school), and if so what? # Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project? Will any be working as employees or consultants for anyone else? # Was any of your code written by someone who is not one of your founders? If so, how can you safely use it? (Open source is ok of course.) # If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, feel free to list them. One may be something we've been waiting for. # Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.) =Winter '09= *What is your company going to make? *For each founder, please list: YC username; name; age; year, school, degree and subject for each degree; email address; personal url (if any); and present employer and title (if any). Put unfinished degrees in parens. List the main contact first. Separate founders with blank lines. Put an asterisk before the name of anyone not able to move to the Bay Area. *Please tell us in one or two sentences about something impressive that each founder has built or achieved. *Please tell us about the time you, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage. *Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible. *How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in person? *What's new about what you're doing? What are people forced to do now because what you plan to make doesn't exist yet? *What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don't get? *Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most? *How will you make money? *If you've already started working on it, how long have you been working and how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written? *If you have an online demo, what's the url? (Please don't password protect it; just use an obscure url.) *How long will it take before you have a prototype? A beta? A version you can charge for? *If you're already incorporated, when were you? Who are the shareholders and what percent does each own? If you've had funding, how much, at what valuation(s)? *If you're not incorporated yet, please list the percent of the company you plan to give each founder, and anyone else you plan to give stock to. (This question is as much for you as us.) *If we fund you, which of the founders will commit to working exclusively (no school, no other jobs) on this project for the next year? *For founders who can't, why not? What level of commitment are they willing to make? *Do any founders have other commitments between January and May 2010 inclusive? *Do any founders have commitments in the future (e.g. finishing college, going to grad school), and if so what? *Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project? Will any be working as employees or consultants for anyone else? *Was any of your code written by someone who is not one of your founders? If so, how can you safely use it? (Open source is ok of course. *Are any of the following true? ** You are the only founder. **You are a student who may return to school when the next term starts. **Half or more of your group can't move to the Bay Area. ** One or more founders will keep their current jobs. ** None of the founders are programmers. *If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, feel free to list them. One may be something we've been waiting for. *Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project? Will any be working as employees or consultants for anyone else? *Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.)